#Columbus ohio news chittenden crime free#
#Columbus ohio news chittenden crime windows#

That's a mistake, but it's still (spurring) legislative change,'' says John Hutzler of the National Center for Juvenile Justice. ''Such legislation has been passed based on the public perception that juvenile crime is growing. Four years ago the state passed what was then the nation's strictest juvenile law, which included trying as adults 13-year olds indicted for murder. Under the old law, the adult threshold was 18, no matter what the crime. In July a law was passed that allows offenders 14 and older to be tried as adults for certain serious crimes. A large portion of that public concern has been fueled by a few highly publicized cases of juvenile crime, such as that of a 15 -year old boy from Woodbury, Conn., and two older friends, who were charged last month with the murder of University of Florida professor Howard Appledorf.īesides Vermont, states passing tougher juvenile crime laws include: Still, the anger and the legislative backlash that immediately follow highly publicized cases of violent juvenile crime, such as the Essex Junction case, are not unusual.Įspecially in cities, lawmakers are sensitive to people's concern about vicious forms of juvenile crime. Now they focus their time and effort on serious crime and send runaways and truants to social agencies. But part of the reason, he explains, is the new way police and the courts approach juvenile crime. ''Police may say crimes are getting more serious,'' says Dr. The decline is largely attributable to a change of emphasis by the police, says William Vaughan Stapleton, director of the private, federally funded Center for the Assessment of the Juvenile Justice System. But, even so, the newly released US Justice Department Uniform Crime Reports show that in 1981, juveniles accounted for 19.8 percent of all serious crime, down from almost 26 percent in 1975. Juveniles still account for more than 40 percent of criminal arrests, according to a recent report by the Justice Department's National Institute for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. And perhaps the most notable aspect of this broader picture is that, nationwide, juvenile crime is dropping.

But such exceptionally violent incidents tell only a part of the overall story concerning juvenile crime. The Vermont case - like grisly crimes committed elsewhere by youths - made headlines for months. Burlington police say violent juvenile crime in 1982 in the city is up 400 percent over 1981, partly because of more police manpower and more attention paid to juvenile crime. The most recent state police records show juveniles committing almost 30 percent of serious crime in the first half of 1982. In response, the state Legislature called it's first special session in six years to pass the new law.īut some 15 months later, statistics indicate that juvenile crime in Vermont is worse than ever.

#Columbus ohio news chittenden crime free#

He'll go free - with his criminal record wiped clean - on his 18th birthday. But Jamie was only 15, so he was sent here to the Waterbury detention center. Another young girl, who was also assaulted and tortured, lived to tell the story.īecause Hamlin was 16 at the time, he went to prison for a stiff 45 -years-to-life term. He's here because he and Louis Hamlin III were convicted of raping, torturing, and murdering a 12-year old Essex Junction girl. Jamie stays in the juvenile detention unit here with other youths that the state deems dangerous. A child as young as 10 can be tried as an adult for certain serious crimes.

#Columbus ohio news chittenden crime windows#

Behind a massive metal door and windows covered with a wire mesh that can't be cut, 15-year old Jamie Savage plays ping-pong.īecause of a crime Jamie and a friend committed, Vermont now has one of the strictest juvenile justice laws in the nation.